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Wednesday, 30 June 2010

I talked about this powerful secret to achieving almost anything you desire in life a few months back, but just today, my friend Tom Venuto sent an email and did an amazing job explaining the exact methods on how to use this secret to successfully attain your goals... whether these goals pertain to your dream body or anything else for that matter.

Tom's incredible article is below. For those of you that don't know of Tom yet, he's the author of the most popular fat loss ebook in the history of the internet - Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.

On a recent special edition of CNN's Larry King Live, Mr. King interviewed a panel of "mind experts" about how the thoughts you think literally turn into the events you experience, the material things you possess... AND even the health of your body.

For years, "positive thinking" and goal-setting were often criticized as "pollyanna" and "the law of attraction" was relegated into the category of "new age" fluff

On the recent show, panel experts Bob Proctor, John Assaraf and others who were featured in the movie 'The Secret' explained that recent breakthroughs in neuroscience along with understanding mental laws, reveals why goal setting, the "law of attraction" and "positive thinking" all work, regardless of whether you look at them from a metaphysical or a scientific perspective.

Scientists have even identified specific parts of the brain, such as the reticular activating system (RAS), which works with the visual parts of our brain to call our conscious attention to things that are important to reaching our goals and to filter out those things that are unimportant.

The RAS is activated by "programming" goals into our sub-conscious minds. Our sub conscious mind is the "power center" and THIS is the mechanism that explains why goal setting and positive thinking are now being accepted as scientific methods for change.

We are discovering that our brain is cybernetic in nature, which means that it is literally like a computer, waiting for a program to be installed.

Here's the kicker - the subconscious is completely neutral and impartial - it will carry out any instructions you give it.

Unfortunately, many of us are still running negative programs we picked up from others as children when our non-conscious minds were totally open and impressionable, or which we developed over the years as a result of repetition of our own negative thinking.

As it turns out, our own thoughts, repeated daily, are one of the primary ways that our "mental computer" is programmed on a sub-conscious level, which is the level of beliefs, habits and automatic behavior.

To change your results, you must overwrite old negative programming and install positive new programming into your subconscious.

This can be achieved through such techniques as written goal setting, positive self-talk (affirmations), and mental imagery (visualization).

In the 1970's, the Soviets and East Germans were the first to formally use structured mental rehearsal, and at that time, they dominated in several Olympic sports. Today, virtually all elite athletes use visualization extensively, as we now know that the brain cannot differentiate between real practice and practice that is vividly imagined.

If you are getting more of the same negative results in your life - such as the same health problems, or the same body fat continues to return even after you lose it, then you have probably been un consciously running old negative programs and reinforcing them with negative thought patterns.

You can begin the positive mental reprogramming process by writing down your goals, changing your internal dialogue and taking a few minutes to relax, quiet your mind and perform a session of visualization or mental rehearsal every day (seeing yourself in your "mind's eye" not as you currently are, but as you ideally would like to be).

These methods, repeated often enough, will begin to program the non-conscious portion of the mind, which is the same part of the mind that controls your heart beat, digestion and new cell production, all on "automatic pilot."

In the last decade, neuro-scientists discovered that you have the capacity to create an almost infinite number of new neural connections in your brain when you run new thought patterns.

The Old neural pathways are like grooves in a record, and if you are struggling with your health related behaviors or behaviors in any other area of your life, you have been playing the "old records" over and over again.

If you were to carve a new groove into that record, it would never play the same way again. the old pattern would weaken and the new one would take over. Brand new, positive thoughts, feelings and images begin to create new
neural patterns.

Psychologists estimate that it takes 21 to 30 days to establish a new pattern in your brain. During this time, the focus on sticking with your practice and repeating your new thought patterns is critical.

Is this easy? For most people, no it's not. In fact, controlling your thinking and keeping it constructive may be one of the most difficult challenges you have ever faced. Fortunately, writing goals and reading affirmations can help get you started.

You can take some of the pressure off yourself by simply accepting that negative thoughts and self criticisms will pop up from time to time. Just observe them, without mulling over them or adding to them, and change the polarity of the thought by quickly repeating one of your positive affirmations or by changing your mental pictures.

So is there something to this whole "positive thinking" thing?

The philosophers and theologians have been saying yes for the entire span of recorded history: "As you think, so shall you be." Variations on this proverb can be found in every spiritual and philosophical tradition.

But... if you are the left-brained, "prove-it-to-me" type, you don't have to go on faith anymore. Scientists are beginning to prove more and more convincingly that thoughts are powerful things. Even Larry King seemed impressed with what his panel of "mind mentors" had to say.

So how soon are you going to begin your mental training right alongside your physical training? When are you going to learn how to harness this power locked up inside your mind?

Guess what? You're already using this force every day because you cannot turn it off. Whatever you are thinking and picturing in your mind repeatedly on a daily basis is on it's way to you already, so it's simply a matter of HOW you are using it, not IF you are using it.

What do you say to yourself every day? Do you say, "I am becoming leaner, healthier and more muscular every day?"... or do you say "I am a fat person - Ive tried everything, nothing ever works?"

The fact is - you can think yourself thin and healthy or you can think yourself obese and ill. Maybe not in the literal sense...but most certainly as the critical part in the chain of causation...

You see, there's a lot of talk these days in the personal improvement world about law of attraction, manifesting, intention, visualization and of course, positive thinking

Without understanding that there is an orderly, scientific basis underneath all of this, many people will simply remain skeptics, while on the opposite extreme, others may get the idea that you can sit around meditating and visualizing, then expect a mystical "law of attraction" to kick in and then "poof!" a great body materializes out of thin air... along with the perfect relationship, a nice bank account and career success.

What really happens is "Positive thinking" and related methods quite literally re-program your brain, which in turn creates new behaviors that move you physically toward whatever you have been thinking about and focusing on.

So success is achieved through positive thinking + positive doing... attraction + action. There are two sides to the coin. Without paying attention to both, you may continue to struggle... often against nothing but yourself.

If you want to transform your body or any other aspect of your life, then you have to change on the inside (the mind) first and then everything else will follow.

PS This process of *scientific* goal setting and mental reconditioning through emotionally charged mental imagery (visualization) and internal mental dialogue (affirmations) is the very first thing I have always taught my clients and the first thing I wrote about in my book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle You can learn all of these techniques in detail in chapter 1. Learn more about the psychology of body transformation inside the Burn The Fat ebook:

Thank you Tom for your insights and sharing this enlightening article. I couldn't have said it all better myself. I think the most important point to take from all of this is that no matter what your goals, dreams, and aspirations are in life, everything starts first with your mindset. Nothing is achieved without first attaining the proper mindset for success.

If you enjoyed this motivational subject today, please feel free to forward this email to any of your friends, family, or coworkers who would enjoy it.

First, the grain industry was in a pinch when the Food Pyramid was created. And wouldn't you know it... the grain industry increased their "contributions" to certain politicians to get placement right at the top of the pyramid... or in this case at the very bottom. The "foundation" if you will.

Just think about this for a moment:

The USDA wants you to eat (gasp) MORE starch than vegetables? More bread than fruits, lean meats, and healthy fats?

Are they NUTS??

Yes... they are nuts. (Which, by the way, are no where near the foundation... nuts, that is.)

You'd be better off flipping that sucker upside-down.

That would look like this:

40% of your calories from healthy fats
30% of your calories from protein
30% of your calories from carbohydrates

Roughly, that is.

Sounds... rebellious, right? Well it is.

Thing is, I have the science (and the abs) to back it up.

TIP 2
Can The Sodas (yes, even "diet" sodas)

This one is really hard for me. I've been hooked on diet-soda on and off for years. If you want to get into top shape, then get rid of the diet-sodas... yes, DIET-sodas. Need I say "real" sodas too? They are loaded with sugar.

Why diet-sodas? A recent study revealed that people who drank diet-sodas actually increased body fat when compared to those who drank sugar-sodas. What the... ??

Yep. Your body cannot be fooled by aspartame and chemicals. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Here's a personal story: When I cut out the diet-sodas, my body fat drops like a rock in a pond of clear water.

And that's what you need to be drinking: A quart of pure water per 50 lbs of bodyweight a day.

I mix it with lemon and a bit of Stevia (an herbal sweetener) and make lemonade. It's wonderful!

TIP 3
Ditch The Starch

Starches, such as rice, potatoes, cereals, oats, etc. are often considered "health foods."

While they can be healthy in some cases, they can also pack on stomach body fat like crazy if you overdo them.

Timing is everything.

We need to take a "weekly" approach to foods rather than a daily approach. This keeps your metabolism guessing. If your body cannot figure out what you're up to, fat burning is that much more powerful. And you can get by with eating starches... at least at specific times on specific days.

The best way to start is to simply cut starches out entirely for 4-8 weeks. Then slowly add them back a few days per week.

TIP 4
Stay Hungry

Arnold's first movie was "Stay Hungry" (well, after "Pumping Iron" that is). You cannot rest on your butt and stay hungry. You cannot think you've "arrived" and stay hungry.

It takes a special person to be hungry... and an even greater one to stay that way.

I want you to stay hungry in two ways: In how you workout and literally... stay a bit hungry before you go to bed. Not "starving"... just a bit hungry.

First, check with your doctor and if he/she okays it take 500mg of potassium and 1000mg of magnesium/calcium a few hours prior to bed. This helps with the hunger pangs. Also, keep hard-boiled eggs in the fridge for a healthy source of protein and healthy fats. If you get really hungry, eat one at night. It keeps me full for an hour at least.

TIP 5
Get Raw At Night

Raw veggies with your last meal and as a snack will really help your fat burning along. I started with red peppers because they're sweet. Now I eat virtually every veggie raw at night without thinking about it. Give this a shot. The fat loss is well worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks Jon!

I like the tips about the hard boiled eggs and raw veggies at night. That's actually one of my favorite night-time snacks when I'm trying to drop body fat fast. Great combination too.

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

In case it gives you any ideas, here's a killer high intensity fat burning workout that I did with a friend today... the entire sequence was done in 11 minutes and we were drenched in sweat from the intensity. You can do more or less based on your current fitness level:

It may sound like an easy and short workout, but those first 6 minutes of non-stop swings and snatches will leave even the leanest and meanest trainee gasping for breath.

If you're not sure what any of these exercises are or how to do them, they are all outlined in detail along with over 50 other of the most effective full body exercises to give you a tight lean body in my Truth about Six Pack Abs program...

Monday, 14 June 2010

Today I have an article contributed by my colleague Rob Poulos. In it, Rob explains why so much mass confusion exists about fat burning, and how to avoid this and get yourself on the right path for lifelong fitness.

People are confused more than ever about how to burn fat. They are confused about the best way to go about achieving the body they want. They are confused about what works and what doesn't, and the reasons why.

There are countless individuals slaving away in gyms and fitness centers around the country right now. They are working tirelessly, almost every day, on the treadmill, stair-climber, elliptical, etc. to burn those calories and fat. They also might be lifting weights several times a week for hours at a time to build some strength and muscle. They might even join a few aerobics or spinning classes too.

They are probably also trying one of the latest diet strategies that promises miracle fat burning and weight loss. They could also be spending a lot of money on the latest and greatest dietary supplements that could be that miracle pill that will aid in weight loss.

They are also carefully watching the scale as their main judge of fat loss progress. If it goes up a pound or two, they may behave rashly and maybe even change up their entire workout or diet program! And of course there are others are doing variations on that same theme.

After all, this is the kind of stuff that many of the popular fitness and diet gurus typically recommend to burn fat. But with so many different strategies and plans being pushed as the be all and end all, what happens is we tend to go overboard.

And when that happens, we lose sight of what really matters in achieving lifelong fat burning, fitness and health…the principles than many people don't know about, most people have forgotten, and only a select few put to use to achieve lifelong health and fitness. These are the same principles I used to drop over 40 pounds of unwanted body fat, keep it off, and revitalize my life!

With any exercise or nutrition program, you'll probably lose some fat initially, but far too often the progress doesn't continue or doesn't come as fast as the person would like because they're using a temporary mindset. They're only focused on the short term and one specific goal. So they end up switching to something else, and the cycle continues until they've become consumed by this cycle of confusion.

I believe that this is one of the biggest, if not the #1 reason for the lack of fat loss and fitness progress that is being experienced by the masses of exercisers and dieters in the world. They are jumping from one fad diet or exercise routine to another, while losing sight of what's really important, and what really works. Simply put, they are exercising far too much, not nearly intensely enough, and trying to adhere to unrealistic diet recommendations.

If instead they focused on a long term plan, a lifestyle as it's often called, and didn't worry about "losing 10 pounds by summer", they would find it far easier to do the right things most of the time. And those right things include brief, progressive, and intense resistance training, eating a diet full of nutrient rich foods, drinking tons of water, and getting plenty of quality sleep and rest.

The students of my Fat Burning Furnace method understand this and are reaping the life long health and fitness rewards because of it. Are you?

Rob Poulos is an expert fitness author and the founder and CEO of Zero to Hero Fitness. Rob created his "Fat Burning Furnace" system to help those looking to put an end to restrictive fad diets, long boring cardio workouts, and the need for super-human willpower for good.

Saturday, 12 June 2010

I'm writing this newsletter while on a business trip in beautiful Vancouver, BC... what a great city! This is my first time in Vancouver and I've really loved this city and the friendly people so far.

I just returned from an amazing lunch with friends a few hours ago at a Raw Foods restaurant here called Organic Lives -- on Quebec Street. If you ever visit here, or live near here currently, definitely check this place out!

We sampled all kinds of different amazing dishes that were all completely raw. Some of them used hemp protein, brazil nut protein, or almonds as the source of protein.

For example, we had a raw lasagna that was made completely with vegetables instead of wheat pasta, and used some sort of brazil nut protein as the meat substitute. Although I love traditional lasagna as a good cheat meal, I have to admit that this raw food lasagna was pretty tasty.

We also had almond cakes, smoothies with fruits, coconut milk, and hemp protein, as well as about 10 other tasty items that we all shared and tasted.

We finished the meal with some fresh papaya (good source of digestive enzymes) as well as a shooter of some sort of blue-green algae shake, which was shockingly tasty.

Nothing at the restaurant used any refined sweeteners or any artificial ingredients. Everything was organic too. Also, I don't think anything contained any wheat either, at least for what we ordered (but I didn't confirm that with the owner).

But what's the real deal with the raw food hype that you hear about in certain circles?

Well, here's my take on it...

First, I've noticed that there seems to be a group of people out there that tend to be a little overly "extreme" raw foodists, where they preach that we shouldn't eat any cooked foods at all.

Now don't get me wrong...I think there are HUGE benefits to trying to make a large portion of your diet raw food. However, I think we have to acknowledge that eating cooked foods as a portion of your food intake can still be healthy, and even beneficial.

For example, certain nutrients in certain vegetables are actually more easily assimilated when those vegetables are cooked.

While some vitamins may be diminished or destroyed while cooking, some vitamins are actually made more available to the body. One example is the antioxidant lycopene, which is made much more highly available to the body in cooked tomatoes vs raw tomatoes.

That's why eating a portion of your vegetables raw has benefits, but also eating a portion of your vegetables cooked can also have benefits.

Plus, we also have to realize that the human digestive system has evolved over tens of thousands of years eating a portion of food as cooked...let's face it, our ancestors DID cook a portion of their food using fire or hot water.

So my big picture take on this subject is that while there are definitely great benefits to raw food and I believe should be included as a good portion of a healthy diet, I think they can be balanced with also eating cooked foods too.

I don't see any reason to be an "extremist" in terms of only eating raw foods and never even touching cooked foods.

Another aspect we haven't covered in the raw food topic is that in some cases, there can also be certain benefits to raw animal products, such as raw milk. I know that's controversial and I won't go into all of that today (more detailed article coming soon)...

One good example is the Samburu tribe in Africa that subsist almost solely on raw cows blood and raw milk and yogurt, while eating very little plant matter...yet they disply extreme health, strength, and lack of disease.

The big picture is that the human body can adapt and thrive to almost any type of diet as long as the diet is made up of natural unprocessed foods... processed foods are the one type of food that we cannot thrive on.